Richard Keene wrote:

>
>
> With a little intelligent management the land can
> be quickly returned to a very fertile state.
> One key to sustainable agriculture is to recycle
> the human waste back to the land so the loop
> is closed and then fertility improves.
>
> Whether this will happen on a large scale in our
> lifetimes remaines to be seen.  The only way this
> could happen is if oil becomes more scarce and
> agriculture is forced back to organics.  This is
> just beginning to happen, but may be too little
> too late.

People interested in this subject should look into Permaculture.
It aims at restoring and enhancing the natural relationships between
plants,
animals, soil, humans, society, air, water, etc.
A couple of good sites are:

<http://metalab.unc.edu/pc-activist> Permaculture Activist magazine

<http://csf.colorado.edu/perma/yankee_intro.html> Bill Mollison on
permaculture

Lynnet